Domain-independent method of detecting inconsistencies in SBVR-based business rules

Abstract

Traditionally, business rules are expressed informally in English, captured eventually, as a part of UML use-cases. Detecting anomalies in business rules is extremely difficult to automate, due to their informal nature, and manually error-prone due to the size and complexity. In recent times, business rules are being expressed increasingly using standard representations (such as Semantics of Business Vocabularies and Rules (SBVR)). We present a method to detect inconsistencies amongst the rules, based on the model checking. We exploit the First Order Logic (FOL) basis of SBVR representation to propose a method that is independent of the business domain. We present a case-study of business rules for well-known example of car-rental, and our method shows promising results to detect inconsistencies.